Kotowski encourages Castaneda to resign from school board

Salinas City Councilman Jose Castaneda received a letter from the Monterey County Superintendent of Schools advising him to leave his post as a Alisal Union Elementary School District board member.

Castaneda was late to his own swearing in ceremony when he became Salinas' newest city council member last month, and his fellow city council members started the meeting without him.

Now Superintendent Nancy Kotowski wants the Alisal school board to run the school district without him because serving on a school board in Salinas and on the Salinas City Council at the same time violates California's conflict of interest laws.

And although he is an elected public official, Castaneda has repeatedly refused to answer questions from KSBW reporters about violating conflict of interest laws with his double public posts.

Kotowski's letter to Castaneda begins, "Let me first congratulate you on your recent election to the Salinas City Council."

"I am writing to alert you that is it most likely that serving on both the City Council for the City of Salinas and the Alisal Union School district within the boundaries of the City of Salinas raise a serious question regarding incompatibility of the two public offices," Kotowski wrote.

"The California Attorney General has issued two opinions holding that a person may not serve on a school board and a city council which includes the same area as the school district," Kotowski wrote.

In accordance with the California Attorney General's decision, the superintendent urged Castaneda to submit his letter of resignation from the school board to her so that the district could proceed with filling the position.

Castaneda was criticized by news outlets across the country when he, along with the rest of the Alisal school board, unanimously approved naming a new elementary school after Tiburcio Vasquez.

Vasquez was born in Monterey in 1835 and spent his life as an outlawed bandit who brawled, robbed, and horse-rustled his way across California. He was publicly hanged at the age of 39 after he was convicted of murder.

The 850-student school is slated to open in August 2013 in an area plagued by youth gang violence and crime.

Vasquez was not seen as a bad guy by all. He was considered a Robin Hood-like hero by some in the Hispanic community, and he was a self-proclaimed defender of Mexican rights.

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